Wednesday, 14 January 2015

This has quickly become one of my favourite ever meals, I will never in my life ever use a packet mix for chilli now I've started making this one. It's packed with Speed foods (formerly known as super free) and is a great winter warmer served with a jacket potato or rice... make enough and it's also great microwaved for lunch!

Ingredients:

- 450g less than 5% fat mince

- 2 tins plum tomatoes

- 1 green pepper diced

- 1 red pepper diced

- Mushrooms (how many is personal preference, I like a lot)

- 2/3 onions sliced

- 1 tin red kidney beans

- Beef stock cube/melt

- 1.5 tbsp lazy chilli

- 1.5 tbsp lazy chopped garlic (in white wine vinegar)

- 1 tbsp tomato puree

Method:

- Brown the mince and onions in a pan

- Add the two tins of plum tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms, tin of kidney beans & stock cube (i put the water from the tin as well as the kidney beans but it's up to you if you want to drain first)

- Stir and leave on medium heat for 5 mins

- add lazy chilli, lazy garlic and tomato puree

- leave to simmer on a low heat for 30-40 mins, stirring occasionally.

If you want a hotter chilli, feel free to add more lazy chilli but do keep tasting as you add because it does pack quite a punch! The above photo is an EESP version of a chilli meal which was still very filling but if you're following the regular SP plan you could have a jacket potato or rice in place of the cottage cheese.

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Well it's been a while since I posted on here, i've been so busy and just not in the right frame of mind to write but I'm back with a fresh batch of post ideas so look out for some new stuff on here over the next couple of days/weeks!

You may or not be aware that the Slimming World plan has changed a teeny tiny little bit in the new year meaning that we all now have brand new books regardless of when you started. I will address the regular plan in another post but this post is going to be all about Extra Easy SP which is the 'booster' plan to be followed when you want to give your weight loss a kick up the backside!

The basics of EESP is that you cut out any food in your book which doesn't have an 'S' or a 'P' next to it. On each plate you have 50% 'S' foods and 50% 'P' foods, you still have your Syns (5-15 per day) and you still have your healthy extras but you can have 2 Healthy B choices on EESP as opposed to just 1 on normal extra easy (you do still only get 1 Healthy A choice).

I've done a full week of EESP this week, admittedly it hasn't been without a slip up because it took a couple of days to get to grips with it properly but here's some of the meals I've enjoyed this week:

- I went to Nando's with every intention of being 100% on EESP but thought I was clever enough not to read my book before I went. I ordered Butterfly Chicken (3.5 syns) with corn on the cob (free) and spicy rice (2.5 syns) only to discover that corn on the cob did NOT have an S or P next to it meaning that it wasn't 'allowed' on EESP, I didn't end up having any S on my plate at all (should have gone for the side salad!) and to be totally honest I shouldn't have had the rice because although it's synned and you are allowed syns, it's obviously rice which is one of the prohibited foods.

Fear not though, a small slip up like this doesn't ruin your week, I can vouch for that because I lost 4.5lb this week! Like I said earlier though, the idea behind EESP is that it boosts your weight loss if you feel as if you're stuck or lacking inspiration. Doing it this week I found that I really enjoyed having 2 Healthy B's and I actually found a renewed interest in eating Slimming World friendly foods.

Have you tried EESP yet? Please feel free to ask any questions below and I'll answer if I can.(although please remember I'm not an SW consultant; nobody can replace their knowledge and expertise)